Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-02

miner against the walls OF a productive
gold mine.
am only man and consequently
not posted in details of female attire,
but gathered the impression that the
younger Miss Black was, to put it
mildly, insufficiently clad. was glad
for her sake that the room was warm.
Apparently my views were shared by
Mrs. Penderlip.
"Just look at Pussy Black'' she
exclaimed, in Mortified tone.
"She looks like ballet girl or cir
Gus rider. The story about her mother
must be true. They say blood will
tell. Those long silk stockings fit
like tights"
Miss Pussy Black turned her pretty
head at that moment and caught my
admiring eye. She smiled, in sweet
and not displeased surprise, and L
recognized the interesting young he
roine of the amateur tobogganing epi-
sode.
When the royal progress of the cir
Gus Blacks was over, when Pussy's
papa was taking his whisky straight
in company with other mining mil
lionaires in retired corner of the pa
latial mansion, when Pussy's mamma
was discussing servants wages with
the proudest matronage of glorious
California, l looked for Miss Pussy
with intent to claim her hand in the
giddy waltz. / found her sitting in a
corner with dozen youthful dandies
in pumps and frizzes about her. She
was queening it with right good
will, and there wasn't q female crea-
ture within twenty feet Of her. She
had learned thus early to dispense
with chaperons.
Miss Pussy affected indifference
toward me at first with coquetry
that was quite mature, but her vanity
was presently kindled by the thought
of being the object of grown up at
tendants, and the little dancing school
boys were sent about their business.
We danced and firted, and pulled
those swapping turtle things which do
perennial duty at children's parties,
and exchanged notices, and even
pledged each other in champagne. 1
limited to Miss Pussy that I should
like to make the acquaintance of her
mother in order to be able to call upon
herself. Pussy only opened her blue
eyes wide and said, demurely:
"Oh, you needn't see ma. / have
plenty of gentlemen calling on me.
Mas generally out shopping in the
daytime. If she's in we can sit in the
hall. The chambermaid in the hotel
lets me do everything I want to, be-
cause 1 gave her my turquoise ear
rings. 1 was tired of 'em. They
weren't fashionable any more"
When returned to my hotel found
a telegram summoning me to the East.
left San Francisco the next day.
Before l went 1 sent to Miss Pussy
Black the finest box of sugar plums
that the city of the golden gate could
supply. Following so closely on the
heels of a children's party, tins gift
would have been indeed fatal one to
most infants. But observation had
convinced me that Miss Pussy had
the stomach of an ostrich, and was
certain that she was the sort OF child
to come up smiling after every round
of sweetstuff.
Eight years passed before l again
saw Pussy. L was at Rome. came
up from Naples and went to hotel
pension behind the Pantheon, which
was famous resort for genteel widows
and spinsters who we're passing their
declining winter days at the Eternal
City. At my first dinner counted no
less than twenty women of uncertain
age, sandwiched in among forlorn
young girls and sickly men. The
black looks that were cast upon me
by three lean British spinsters who
sat opposite to me did not improve my
appetite; they all wore soiled
white. knitted shawls and wrangled
among themselves on the sub
ject of church architecture. At my
left was an American maiden lady
who had dyed, yellow hair. l heard
later that she was going over to the
church of Rome. At my right sat
portly dame with a Roman profile and
iron gray hair. Her face was singu-
larly familiar. She raised her shell
eyeglass and gazed with quiet sarcasm
upon the corpse of puny little bird
which rested from its joys and sor-
row upon her plate. Her gesture re-
minded me of certain California fes-
tivities in which had once partici-
pated and I recognized the lady who
had told me the tale of the "Circus
Blacks"
''Is this Mrs. Penderlip?" I asked,
at length. IA
She turned and looked at me with
ready amiability, after the European
foh1o 1,hOfa mannar
81 have met you somewhere" she
said pleasantly, "but L cannot recall
time and place."
/ reminded Mrs. Penderlip of the
half-hour's chat we had had eight
years before at the home of the Cali
fornia mining man, and l asked her
what had become of the "Circus
Blacks"
'.They are here at Rome" said Mrs.
Penderlip, "and in high feather. They
move in court circles, thanks to Pus-
sy's beauty and her flirtations with
poverty-stricken noblemen. see. q
good deal of them. l never even rec
ognized them in California. 1 couldn't,
you know. But over here it is differ
ent. Money is all that counts with
the Italians. They think all Ameri-
cans are plebeians. Mrs. Black is very
glad to have me vouch for her pedi-
gree. I never say anything about the
bareback act, or the market garden,
or the tailor's shop, and it wouldn't
make any difference if 1 did. like
Mrs. Blacks opera box and her good
dinners-the dinners at this house
grow worse every day-and she thinks
me an excellent chaperone for her Pus-
sy. Even girls like Pussy Black have
to be chaperoned at times in this scan
dal-loving city. The New York and
Boston women turn, up their noses at
the Blacks, but there isn't girl in
the American colony as handsome as
Pussy, and with her money she ought
to marry well. The other daughter,
Ella, is married and lives at San Fran
cisco. Nowadays the tops are all get
I